MOUNTAIN ROSE
1. Tilton Jour. Hort. 7:339 fig. 1870. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 18. 1871. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 1st App. 121. 1872. 4. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 33, 261. 1874. 5. N. J. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 41. 1878. 6. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:239. 1898. 7. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:220. 1899. 8. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:352. 1903. 9. Fulton Peach Cult. 174. 1908.
For many years Mountain Rose was preeminent among white-fleshed, freestone peaches by virtue of high quality and handsome appearance. It has a distinct and curious but delicious flavor—a sort of scented sweetness that appeals to all who appreciate choicely good fruit. Unfortunately, it fails in the chief requirement for popularity in these days of commercial fruit-growing—the trees are unproductive, a fault so marked that the variety is rapidly passing from cultivation. Mountain Rose sells well in all markets where it is known, usually bringing a fancy price because of its extra good quality and because it follows closely after the dozen or more white-fleshed, clingstones of poorer quality.
The variety originated about 1851 on the farm of a Dr. Marvin, Morristown, New Jersey. Of its parentage nothing is known. Mountain Rose has always been considered a good market variety and has been widely disseminated. The American Pomological Society added this peach to its fruit-list in 1871, a place it has since held.
MOUNTAIN ROSE
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, low-growing and dense-topped, rather unproductive; trunk thick, medium in smoothness; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown covered with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, long, with internodes of medium length, dark red intermingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous, large and small lenticels raised near the base.
Leaves six and three-fourths inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, flattened or curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thick, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green; lower surface grayish-green; apex long-acuminate; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, with two to four small, globose, reddish-brown glands variable in position; flower-buds conical to pointed, plump, very pubescent, usually appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers small.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; two and one-eighth inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, roundish-oblate to slightly cordate; cavity intermediate in depth and width, flaring to abrupt, often twig-marked; suture shallow, becoming deeper toward the tip; apex roundish, depressed in the suture, with mucronate or sometimes mamelon tip; color creamy-white blushed with deep red, with a few splashes of darker red; pubescence long, thick; skin thin, tough, variable in adhesion; flesh white, stained red near the pit, juicy, tender and melting, sweet, mild, pleasantly flavored; good to very good in quality; stone free, one and one-fourth inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval to ovate, plump, bulged on one side, contracted toward the base, tapering to a short point, usually with small pits in the surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved along the sides, furrowed; dorsal suture grooved, faintly winged.